I noticed that all K-5 students have daily PE this school year. Is that new?

Yes! Last Spring, Austin ISD announced that Elementary students would receive PE 4-5 days per week. Patton has chosen to offer PE four days per week. On five-day weeks students will have a “Flex Friday,” when they will get to rotate through a bonus Music, Art, or PE activity.

What about Music and Art?

Our students will still receive high quality Fine Arts instruction three days per week on an A/B week rotation. For example, one week your student may have two music classes and one art class; the following week they will attend two art classes and one music class. With additional Flex Fridays, this equates to slightly more Fine Arts minutes than previous years!

I’m worried about too many students in the gym… will my child be safe? Will they have fun?

We had the same concern! To keep students safe and maintain our high standards for instruction, the PE schedule will be divided as follows:

• Gym Time will take place with Coach Blando and one of our Teaching Assistants 2 days per week. In the gym, students will get to learn and practice Motor Skills such as throwing, catching, dribbling, and jump rope, and play games to enrich their learning.

• Green PE is part of our new program! One day each week, students will participate in a classroom-based learning experience. In Green PE, we will learn about Wellness topics such as bones, muscles, self-care, and nutrition. Our physical activity will consist of school service, like working in the garden and helping to keep our campus beautiful. We are very excited to give all our students hands-on experience with our Green Flag program!

• WOW Time (Working Out for Wellness): Marathon Kids is a program that allows students to track activity time to see how many Marathons they can run in a school year! One day each week, students will spend time working towards their Marathon Kids goals with a PE Teaching Assistant. They will also have time in the WOW classroom to rotate through a variety of other enrichment activities.

I know students at another Austin ISD school whose Essential Areas programs are different… What’s up with that?

Austin ISD has empowered individual Elementary schools to create their own schedules this year. We feel that our selections will be best for our school, but are keeping an open mind and appreciate our community’s flexibility as we pioneer our new program. We may make some adjustments, but we will always focus on what is best for our students first!

Did you say that you have PE Teaching Assistants now? That sounds like a really fun job!

We think it will be pretty awesome, and we are still looking for a Teaching Assistant to join our team! If you are interested, please reach out to us! To apply, search Job ID 49138 in Austin ISD Applitrack.